Mines, Bombs and Boobytraps

"Achtung! Minen!"

 I am in the process of assembling a lot of smaller pieces of characterful terrain to give my tabletop gaming a little more visual interest and to function as encounter markers, scenario objectives etc.  Trixie and the Zombie Crows are other parts of the same project.  

Unexploded Bombs

With that in mind I picked up the limited editon box of Mines, Bombs and Boobytraps that GW released in conjunction with their Planetstrike promotion this summmer.  I have very little interest in ever playing Planetstrike but this little set was too cool to pass up. 

Mines

 I got the lot (22 pieces) painted up over the course of an evening in front of the TV.  They provide interest on the table and look good I think.

Boobytraps: note the concealed grenades

Sin Eater Chaos Terminator Squad Romero

Sin Eater Terminator with Combi-melta and Lightning Claw

 

Squad Romero was painted in late 1999 as the ongoing development of my 40k Nurgle Chaos army, the Sin Eaters.  At the time I was playing a lot of 40k but even then, Terminators were never really that competitive a choice for the tournament games that I was playing.  I couldnt resist painting these guys up however: they are cool figures.

Sin Eater terminators armed with Heavy Flamer, combi-Bolter and Lightning Claws.

I bought the figures even further back than that: in 1993 or 1994.  The zombie heads from the GW sprue obviously came later than that (was that sprue released in 1999?).

Side view of a colossal Chaos Terminator weapon (Combi-Melta).

Sin Eater Terminator with Combi-Flamer and Sergeant Romero armed with Combi-Bolter and Chainfist.

Sgt. Romero is the only figure here with its original head… in case anyone was wondering.

Posts on Wednesdays and Sundays from now on.

 

I am very pleased with the traffic that sho3box has been getting since I started it a few months ago: >7500 hits and counting.  I have also achieved the goals that I set out for it originally in that my miniature photography has improved (although there is obviously a lot of room for further improvement), I have documented a portion of my stuff and I finally have an easy way to link friends and any other potentially interested parties to my various projects.  Go me.

As it says in the title however, I will be posting twice a week from here on in, instead of three weekly posts as it has been up until now.  That should put me under a little less pressure due to my prehistoric internet connection and other commitments.  I will see how this new schedule goes for a month or two and reassess then.

Bauhaus Doomtroopers, Dark Legion Razides and Ezoghoul

Bauhaus Doomtroopers

The last Doomtrooper team, Max and Valerie.

Max Von Steiner and Valerie Duval

Razides

The two Razide figures are hands down the worst figures in a box of questionable miniatures.  Apparently they are demons of flesh and stone from another dimension.  They look like they are from out of town alright.

Ezoghoul

The Ezoghoul is the big bad in SotC.  It appears to be some kind of cyborg-zombie-centaur-demon with a huge sword and a railgun.  Despite the obvious promise of such a combination the model doesnt really do it for me.  I also made a balls of painting and dipping it, which doesnt help.  I dont see myself coming back to it any time however: there are too many good miniatures that I could be painting instead.  The Ezoghoul is fine as is for games of SotC.

"Hi, Ho, Ezoghoul, AWAAAAY!"

Imperial Doomtroopers and Dark Legion Nepharite

Imperial Doomtroopers

Gallagher and Murdoch

The second last Doomtrooper team from Siege of the Citadel: the Imperials.

Nepharite

The Nepharite is the second biggest bad guy in Siege of the Citadel, a kind of high priest or greater demon.  The figure is quite goofy and the chainsaw-on-a-stick is actually sculpted and cast with that daft bend in it.  It is next to impossible to remedy too due to the way that the rear of the pole extends into contact with the shoulder pad due to technical casting issues. 

Exposed brain.

As a somewhat priestly figure I thought that the Inquisition transfer of text would look good on his shoulder.  There is something about this figure that makes me think of St Patrick for some reason.  Sort of funny.

Trixie MacGuffin

Trixie MacGuffin: Damsel in Distress

I have been putting together some scenery for gaming with recently.  Not a lot of big items, mostly just premade bits and pieces like GW craters and other similar stuff.  In particular I have been getting together some small terrain markers to serve game purposes such as enounter markers, denoting radioactive or toxic areas, scenario objectives etc, a bit like the Zombie Crows from a little while back.  Trixie above fits nicely under “scenario objectives”.

Trixie is promotional resin figure available from Ramshackle Games.  They have loads of cool post-apocalyptic stuff for good prices.  Recommended.

Brotherhood Doomtroopers and Dark Legion Praetorians

Brotherhood Doomtroopers

All of the figures in this post are old metal figures from the Mutant Chronicles Warzone game.  Rules to field these guys in the Siege of the Citadel boardgame were published in a hard to get pamphlet type publication back in the mid nineties.  After grabbing a scan of the pamphlet I picked up the figures necessary for the only “expansion” for the game.

Nicodemus and Crenshaw

The paint job on the above two figures was even more rushed than most of the figures that I painted for the game and it shows.  One day I may go back and tidy up some of the splodgy mess from the dipping but who knows?  I have so many miniature projects to do that it seems unlikely that I will get back to these two.

Praetorians

On the other hand I quite like the paint job on these guys. Apart from the flesh (which had a very quick wash and a patchy highlight) the rest of the figure was simply base coated.  The dip picked up the detail on the armour plates nicely overall.

Not-Nepharite

When I ordered the above figures from Prince August they were kind enough to send me this figure as a freebie.   I decided to paint him up along with the rest of the figures for the game, even though he is surplus to requirements for it.   Like a lot of the Mutant Chronicles figures he is pretty over the top but he is fun in a Masters of the Universe sort of way I think.  Im not sure why I decided to give him pink-ish skin but whatever: he is a fun figure.

Cybertronic Doomtroopers and Dark Legion Centurions

Cybertronic Doomtroopers

These guys are from the cyborg and A.I. faction from Mutant Chronicles.  The guy on the right is an A.I. and the guy on the left is a male cyborg who goes by the hilarious name of “Coral Beach”.

Coral Beach and Attila III

Centurions

Dark Legion Centurions are officer class Necromutants.  The colour scheme for these guys combined with the entertaining side partings give them a WWII German look I think, kinda Weird War.

Flesh golem officers

Mishima Doomtroopers and Dark Legion Necromutants

Mishima Doomtroopers

The next pair of Doomtroopers from Mutant Chronicles: Siege of the Citadel.  This time its the Mishima Corporation representatives.

Satsu and Yojimbo

 

Necromutants

 

Necromutants are the next up the Dark Legion food chain from the Legionnaires.  The Legionnaires are zombies whereas the Necromutants are flesh golems, like Frankensteins monster.  In game terms this translates into troops that hit with more power and are harder to kill.

Evil, stiched together body components.

 

All eight Necromutants.

Capitol Doomtroopers and Dark Legionnaires

Capitol Doomtroopers

Mutant  Chronicles: Siege of the Citadel is a boardgame set in the Mutant Chronicles universe and produced in 1993 .  The Mutant Chronicles universe actually ended up with its own movie last year.  It even had some famous people starring in it (Ron Perlman, John Malkovich).  How this license managed to get a cinema release before Warhammer 40k did is pretty puzzling to me, considering how much of a blatant rip-off of the 40k-verse that MC is.

Anyway, the boardgame is a Space Crusade clone: each player gets a two-man squad of “Doomtroopers” that they have to complete missions, gain experience and buy equipment with. The bad guys (the Dark Legion) are played by each player chosen randomly (we rotate it in our games) per mission.  Playing as the bad guy isnt that bad as the “credits” that you gain as the DL player are given to your Doomtrooper team (presumably as they are up to some credit worthy exercise for the duration of the mission while you play the DL).

Its a light game, much lighter than Doom and lighter in mechanics even than Space Hulk apart from the minimal cardplay.  Correspondingly the gameplay can feel a little scripted so it isnt to everyones taste.  I quite enjoy it from time to time.

Mitch Hunter and Big Bob

I painted the figures in 2008.  Painting the entire set of 38 figures plus the 5 extra that I painted to go with the expansion for the game was an experiment in dipping techniques, the then new GW Foundation paints and checking out the bare minimum of work that I can do to get a figure ready for gaming with.  Some of the figures worked better than others but most of them are fine for playing MC:SotC with.

Legionnaires

 

Reanimated corpses of fallen enemies apparently.

Some of the miniatures are kinda clunky sculpts but they have a kind of crude charm to my eyes, a bit like the goofy Space Marines from Space Crusade. 

All twelve Legionnaires